Ilford Fiber non-dust white marks?

Christine Lee Smith · Jan 6, 2018

Hello everyone! I found this forum after a hair pulling day in the darkroom.

I have a box of Ilford 16x20 Fiber matte paper I've had trouble with through all 10-sheets. I first thought it was the negative (clean), then the enlarger (cleaned thoroughly 2-days ago by lab tech, and tested fine, then air dusted by me prior to printing). And then I test printed the areas with the white marks on another fiber paper, and came out clean. I go to make my final print and the white marks are still there in different areas of the print. And the deeper I get in the box of 10 the worse the white marks are.

Several others looked at the print and wondered if it was a bad batch of paper?

Any thoughts?

photog_ed · Jan 6, 2018

There may be dust or lint on the paper. Try cleaning each sheet before exposing it.

jimjm · Jan 7, 2018

Welcome to PHOTRIO!

Is it possible to show an example of one of the prints? If the spots vary or get worse from print to print, I'd suspect a problem with the paper (uncommon but not unheard of, especially if using older paper), or maybe even your chemicals. Improper handling of paper during processing can also cause issues. Rough handling can damage the emulsion or white marks from cross-contamination can result from dipping the tongs in the wrong chemicals.

RalphLambrecht · Jan 7, 2018

Christine Lee Smith said:
Hello everyone! I found this forum after a hair pulling day in the darkroom.

I have a box of Ilford 16x20 Fiber matte paper I've had trouble with through all 10-sheets. I first thought it was the negative (clean), then the enlarger (cleaned thoroughly 2-days ago by lab tech, and tested fine, then air dusted by me prior to printing). And then I test printed the areas with the white marks on another fiber paper, and came out clean. I go to make my final print and the white marks are still there in different areas of the print. And the deeper I get in the box of 10 the worse the white marks are.

Several others looked at the print and wondered if it was a bad batch of paper?

Any thoughts?

heard of it but, never had this problem myself. I recommend to contact Ilford Technical Services. They are very good at investigating and making good and possibly replacing the bad paper.

Christine Lee Smith · Jan 7, 2018

jimjm said:
Welcome to PHOTRIO!

Is it possible to show an example of one of the prints? If the spots vary or get worse from print to print, I'd suspect a problem with the paper (uncommon but not unheard of, especially if using older paper), or maybe even your chemicals. Improper handling of paper during processing can also cause issues. Rough handling can damage the emulsion or white marks from cross-contamination can result from dipping the tongs in the wrong chemicals.

Thanks Jim!
Yes the problem go worse as I used more paper (the last sheet was the worst).
I keep trying to attach a photo but no matter how small I make it the forum won’t allow it saying it’s too big?

Christine Lee Smith · Jan 7, 2018

RalphLambrecht said:
heard of it but, never had this problem myself. I recommend to contact Ilford Technical Services. They are very good at investigating and making good and possibly replacing the bad paper.

Thank you Ralph! I didn’t know they had a tech services department! I will give that a try.

BMbikerider · Jan 7, 2018

Can I suggest the obvious and send an E mail to Ilford. If you go onto their website there is the contacts link and send the enquiry to them. I did so a while back concerning B&W developer and received a reply withing a few days. If you go onto the contacts page there are several different sections to send your E mail to and in your case I would suggest go to the suppot link and follow on from there.

The website address is https://www.ilfordphoto.com

(don't just put in Ilford, 'cos you will get the website up for Iford town)

Sirius Glass · Jan 7, 2018

BMbikerider said:
Can I suggest the obvious and send an E mail to Ilford. If you go onto their website there is the contacts link and send the enquiry to them. I did so a while back concerning B&W developer and received a reply withing a few days. If you go onto the contacts page there are several different sections to send your E mail to and in your case I would suggest go to the suppot link and follow on from there.

The website address is https://www.ilfordphoto.com

(don't just put in Ilford, 'cos you will get the website up for Iford town)

Welcome to ~~APUG~~ PHOTRIO!

I agree with BMbikerider.

MattKing · Jan 7, 2018

Christine Lee Smith said:
I keep trying to attach a photo but no matter how small I make it the forum won’t allow it saying it’s too big?

If you resize your photos down to 800 pixels on the longest side, they should be uploadable to the thread.
You can also reach Harman Technology Ltd. (the makers of Ilford photographic products) by "Starting a Conversation" here on Photrio with their representatives who, collectively, operate under the user name "Harman Tech Service".
Click on the "Inbox" link at the top corner of the page and the click on the "Start a New Conversation" link to get to the correct screen.
Oh, welcome to Photrio!

Christine Lee Smith · Jan 9, 2018

T

Sirius Glass said:
Welcome to ~~APUG~~ PHOTRIO!

I agree with BMbikerider.

Thanks Sirius! I will.

Christine Lee Smith · Jan 9, 2018

MattKing said:
If you resize your photos down to 800 pixels on the longest side, they should be uploadable to the thread.
You can also reach Harman Technology Ltd. (the makers of Ilford photographic products) by "Starting a Conversation" here on Photrio with their representatives who, collectively, operate under the user name "Harman Tech Service".
Click on the "Inbox" link at the top corner of the page and the click on the "Start a New Conversation" link to get to the correct screen.
Oh, welcome to Photrio!

Oh, that's great! I didn't realize I could start that here. Thank you, Matt!

DREW WILEY · Jan 10, 2018

I've had it with a few sheets per 50pk box of both MGCT and Fineprint. In these instances, the top sheet with the emulsion facing the black plastic always had it, and had it the worst. So I suspect either some kind of wrapper or pkg line contamination. A few sheets on the bottom of the stack had minor issues; none in the middle.

Ilford Fiber non-dust white marks?

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